The present invention relates to an information processing device and method, and a recording medium, and particularly to an information processing device and method and a recording medium which are suitably applied to a device for providing users with copy-protected data.
Recently, digital broadcasts for distributing video data and audio data as digital data have become popular. A reception device for receiving digital broadcasts is equipped with plural output terminals so that it can connect to various devices. For example, it is equipped with a digital terminal for outputting received digital data to another device, a terminal to which an IEEE1394 cable is connected, a terminal to which an optical cable is connected, etc., and also it is equipped with an analog terminal for outputting received data to an analog-only supporting device.
Three types of digital data are distributed, such as video data and audio data for television receivers, audio data for radio receivers and programs for personal computers or game machines.
Even if the digital data distributed by the digital broadcast are temporarily stored in a recording medium and copied into another recording medium many times, the image quality and the sound quality of the digital data do not deteriorate, and thus plural copies can be created. Such a situation is unfavorable from the viewpoint of copyrights, and thus distributed digital data are subjected to a method of preventing such illegal copies (copy protect).
As described above, there are three types of digital data (contents) to be distributed, and a reception device for receiving digital data is equipped with plural terminals. The copy protect operation is varied in accordance with the types of these contents and the outputting terminals.
FIGS. 1 to 3 include tables showing the copy protect in accordance with the three content types.
FIG. 1 shows a table on the copy protect of digital data for television receivers, FIG. 2 shows a table on the copy protect of digital data for devices for receiving digital audio services such as radio receivers, and FIG. 3 shows a table on the copy protect of digital data for devices for receiving data services of programs, etc., such as personal computers.
As shown in the tables of FIGS. 1 to 3, the specification on the copy protect is given so as to meet the type of content and the output destination. Of course, the user may become frustrated even when the user is directly supplied the information on the copy protect. However, when no information on the copy protect is supplied, the user may nevertheless be unable to record pictures because the copy protect is applied thereto although the user wants to record the pictures. There may occur a situation, therefore, in which the user cannot watch/listen to the pictures although the user paid to watch/listen to them.